This compendium consists of Topics and Resources. Topics currently include all the countries in the world (and for a few countries, also the provinces/states within them). For one country, Poland, there is an additional type of topic, City. When viewing a Topic (i.e. Italy) you will see a list of resources divided into seven potential sections:

History – Related to the history of the Jewish presence in the country or region.

Genealogy – Sites that contain specific genealogical information on the Jews from this area, such as vital records, census records, cemetery indexes, etc.

Cemeteries – Information about Jewish cemeteries from the location.

Holocaust – Resources specific to the Holocaust.

Diaspora – Places where former Jewish residents of this region now can be found, and where they communicate (community organizations, facebook groups, etc.)

Contemporary – Information on the current Jewish community in this area, such as synagogues, Jewish communal organizations, etc.

Books – Books about the Jewish presence in this area.

For Poland, which has the addition of Cities, there is also an additional section, General. General contains links about the city that are not specifically Jewish, and is meant to give objective data on the city to help you insure you are looking at the correct city (since many cities have either the same name or several similar names). Submissions will not be accepted for the General category, as it is meant to be limited to a few simple sources such as Wikipedia and the official government web sites for the towns. Keep in mind there is no distinction on this site between City, Town and Village. The terms are used interchangeably.

Note that there is potential overlap between these sections. Sites may have both genealogical data and historical information. A cemetery database could have a lot of useful genealogical data. A book might fit into any of the sections. In general, if a site contains genealogical data, it is listed under Genealogy. If a resource is a history museum, it will generally show up in History, even if it has genealogical data (which some do). Cemeteries are cemeteries, whether there is data or not. As such, you should not assume anything by the section a resource shows up in, as it might very well have fit in multiple sections but can only appear in one. In short, section placement is somewhat subjective.

Each resource listed has two links that can be clicked:

The first link, under the Resource column, is a link to the resource itself. This will take you away from the compendium and will load the resource.

The second link is on the far right in the Comments column (the link is a number that shows the number of comments made on that resource), which goes to the page for that resource in the compendium. The resource page shows you the details of the resource, and allows you to comment on the resource. One of the goals of this compendium is to encourage the sharing of information about available resources. If it’s a book, you can write a review. If it’s a database, you can share how best to search it, or what records you found there that were useful. If it’s a Wikipedia entry, tell people what you’ve added to it. It’s a primary goal of the compendium to be interactive and to promote discussion.

For more detailed information on this compendium, see the posts about it below. The most recent post is at the top.